Furnmart/Home Corp employees to go on strike

THE employees of franchise furniture stores Furnmart and Home Corp in Namibia will embark on a countrywide strike from 1 June, following unsuccessful wage negotiations.

This was announced during a media briefing in Walvis Bay on Wednesday, where the president of the Metal and Allied Workers Union (Manwu), Angula Angula told the media this comes after a series of failed wage negotiations with the management of the stores since last year.

“Numerous attempts by the workers and the local management of Furnmart to amicably seek a solution to the matter and agreeing to the 12% increment requested by the employees, proved futile,” Angula said.

He added that instead, Furnmart/Home Corp offered a 6% salary increase to the non-commission based employees and a 0% increment to the commission-based employees.

“A deadlock was then reached on 19 February 2019 and a certificate of unresolvement was then issued to the parties,” Angula noted.

Manwu expressed dismay at the fact that these are some of the lowest paid employees, who are expected to feed their families and pay for taxi fare with the little money they earn.

“These employees are not even able to afford to sign up for the current medical aid provided by the company.”

Kuisebmond branch salesperson, Kaitjindi Kavetuna, told the media on Wednesday that the employees are ready for the strike and will go on with it until such a time they receive a satisfactory response.

When contacted for comment, the office of the Furnmart country manager said they were aware of the strike and had no further comment on the matter.

– Nampa

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